NonDenominational Coins

In a way, there are two parts to this Idea. The first part is about the coin. Imagine a pure-gold coin that weighs 10 grams (about 1/3 of a troy ounce). Embossed on the coin would be a description of that: "24K gold, 10 grams". There might be some design or other on the coin, but they are not as important as the description. If you took the coin to a store, modern computer tech and Internet connectivity could easily let both you and the store-owner know the current commercial valuation of the coin. If it happened to be worth $300, then you could buy something that cost $300 with it. If it happened to be worth $500, then you could buy a $500 item instead.

Now imagine other coins made of other substances, such as silver, palladium, iridium, and platinum. None of them would be given a value-denomination; all would simply be marked with descriptions of the substance, and the magnitude (like "100 grams").

But there is no reason to only have high-value-metal coins. Copper, of course, has long been used for low-value coinage. So have nickel and tin and aluminum. But we could widen the list considerably, by including other metals that are neither especially common nor especially rare: chromium, molybdenum, zirconium, titanium, vanadium, niobium, gadolinium, tantalum, tungsten, and so on, even including lead. Collect the whole set! We would NOT want to use metals like uranium, but not because they are radioactive (depleted uranium is low-level enough to be reasonably safe, while others are certainly deadly dangerous), but because they simply don't stay PURE, a side-effect of their radioactivity.

Before we get to the second part of this Idea, we need to cover an "intermediate" sort of thing. Historically, a problem with high-value coinage was "clipping" (or something equivalent). Take a bunch of gold coins and put them together in a sack. Then put the sack onto a shaking device, and let it shake for a month or two. Open the sack, remove the coins, and note a fair amount of gold dust is now in the sack. Keep the dust and pretend the coins have the same value as when you obtained them....

NOT FAIR! We want these coins to be trusted to actually be what they say they are. Obviously any place that is willing to accept these coins is going to need a fairly accurate scale, to be sure the coin actually weighs what it says it weighs. And an "X-ray spectrometer" would be a nice thing for the merchant to have, too (see link). It will verify that the substance of the coin is what it says it it is, and do so non-destructively.

The second part of this Idea has a two-fold purpose, one of which can partly assist the intermediate thing just described. Seal each coin in a thin clear plastic case. If the case is damaged, that could be a sign that someone tampered with the coin. It would certainly be a reason to take the coin to a minter, where it could be put into a new case after thorough analysis (or physically ripped into atoms, for separation into whatever elements it actually happened to be made of).

The second purpose of the plastic case relates to the reason why coins made of iron generally were not done. A number of metals from which coins might be made will seriously corrode when exposed to the atmosphere. The plastic case seals them away from the air, and thus the coin remains pure. As a result, we could deliberately make coins from some of the more reactive metals, like rubidium. Anyone who opens THAT case, trying to devalue the coin, will be in for a surprise!